For those of you who can’t get enough Loose Wire (yeah, I know there are millions of you out there, even if you don’t admit it) you’ll be delighted to know it now appears on the BBC World Service radio. Well, sporadically, anyway. I appear, reading one of my columns in my customary monotone, on … Read more
If you’ve ever wondered whether some of these dating/match-making/friend-finding websites are seat-of-the-pant fly-by-nights, here’s a clue: For $150 you can get the software to start your own, with a starter “database of Russian, Ukrainian, Europe and American ladies’ profiles!” thrown in, possibly, for free. Pilot Group’s blurb for its Ready Dating Site Solution says: “Here … Read more
This week I write in FEER about Wi-Fi for the masses. Here’s a sneak peek: In corners of Asia, away from the bustling business districts, a loose array of activists, entrepreneurs and former dotcommers is cobbling together ad-hoc Wi-Fi networks using whatever suits the environment, from bicycles and sonar panels to power computers, to motorbikes, … Read more
Further to some postings a few weeks back about bluetooth dating (here and here), seems we defined the field too narrowly. We should have been talking about ‘personal smart presence devices’ and perhaps we’re not seeing a fad here, but a different way of regarding social interaction. (All these services reside on Bluetooth devices — … Read more
(See this later posting for a response from MSN and Yahoo.) Here’s possible evidence that Gmail is not alone in scanning your email in order to target ads at you. MarketingVOX (‘The Voice of Online Marketing’) reports that “the strange mix of privacy advocates, anti-globalists and anti-commercial groups that seem to be swarming on Google … Read more